IMO, the person who put the original list together simply hasn’t been watching THJr light it up lately. Craft is great, don’t get me wrong. THJr is better.

AG2

Yahoo Sports = Rivals.com = Based in Columbus, OH.

JimC

Craft as freshman of the year?! They might as well pile that on $ullinger too.

So with all the seniors departing the B10, should we expect Michigan, and IN, at the top of the league next year????

Azad

Sullinger deserves freshman of the year, but if it were somehow between Hardaway and Craft, there’s no question I would take Hardaway there.

georgeesq.

I don’t think that the gap between Craft and THJ is that great. Strictly looking at scoring, THJ has a big edge; but Craft is a tenacious defender and his assist to TO ratio is outstanding. IMO, tough to choose.

Azad

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been very impressed by Craft. He’s probably played some of the best defense on Darius Morris all season, in addition to playing big minutes on a #1 team and he’s not a bad offensive player. However, I do think that Hardaway has had a lot more burden on him to support the team; I think Hardaway’s more valuable to our success than Craft has been at OSU. That, plus the statistical advantage, means I give the edge to Timmy.

http://umhoops.com KAB

Sb Nation bracket has us as the last four in the dance.Jerry Palm has us as the first four out.

JimC

I see Lunardi has us “Last 4 In”, with 6 from the Big 10.
But how does MSU show up as a 10 seed there? Looks like they’re just getting consideration from past performance.

Dylan Burkhardt

MSU has a stronger resume than Michigan at this point. I’m not sure what you’re trying to argue?

JimC

OK, I will save my argument until Saturday at 4pm. ;)

maxwell’s demon

I’d say their resume is only marginally better if at all. You shouldn’t get credit for playing a tough non-conference schedule if the only relatively good team you can beat is Washington. The only thing they really have on us is an overtime win vs. Wisconsin. If we win Saturday, there’s no question who is more deserving.

J.D.

MSU’s strength of schedule is way better than ours, and they have big wins early in the season. I tried making this argument and someone sent me a RPI formula (the entire formula). Like I’m going to check if a teams RPI is correct, I’ll take their word. Just from looking at it, there seems to be a lot of weight on a teams SOS. Sincerely I hope MSU loses three straight, finishes something like 16-15, and still makes the tournament. The argument then will be “oh boy. I know they started as the 2nd best in the nation, but that SOS sure was high, really they probably could have afforded to lose 3 more games.” LOL.

http://umhoops.com KAB

Agreed,I think MSU get’s a bid even with a loss to us.

steve

as long as they beat Iowa tmrw

Tom_McC

I think the Iowa game is far more important to MSU than UM is at this point(the next game is always the biggest, obviously). Iowa at home would be a BAD, BAD loss and those are not looked upon to fondly by the committee. A loss on the road at UM while not the best scenario for MSU, probably doesn’t kill them because their RPI number won’t drop too far.

Really, if MSU avoids any bad losses in the next 4 games, they are solid, IMO. As long as they don’t lose to Iowa or their 1st Rd BT game(assuming they don’t beat UM) MSU fans have to feel good about their chances.

Quite honestly, the UM/MSU game is far more crucial to UM than MSU, IMO.

http://www.offtackleempire.com GregGoBlue

I just hope Durrell Summers doesn’t remember how to play basketball between now and Saturday.

http://umhoops.com KAB

Well yea,I believe they will beat Iowa at home…

Jeff

So tonight we want Florida over Alabama, Missouri over Nebraska, and Okl St over Baylor. I’m not sure who to root for in OSU/PSU, IL/PU, or BC/VTU.

Dylan Burkhardt

I think we want OSU. If PSU wins, Michigan has a good chance to get bumped to the 6/11 game, even with a win over MSU.

Illinois/Purdue… Both teams that Michigan played once. Michigan would probably have to play the Illini in the 4/5 game if they made it there, so maybe we want them to look good?

VT/BC? I’ve seen BC in some brackets. I think VT is probably a safe bet to make the tournament so maybe root for them rather than BC? Another tough one.

Kenny

OSU and Purdue, but we then want Penn State to win over Minnesota.

UM Hoops Fan

Yeah, the one thing we don’t want is for PSU to win both games and finish 10-8 — pushes us out of the 4-5 game, propels another team to at least arguably above us, etc. Who knows what state Minny will be in for the last game so we want PSU to lose tonight.

Otherwise, probably doesn’t matter much. Either BC or Vtech gets a win but the other gets a loss. Illinois losing is probably better in that if we beat MSU then beat Ill in the 4-5 game we may actually vault ahead of them. On the other hand, if Ill wins it’s a better win or less bad loss if we lose.

Just let PSU lose and I’ll be happy.

Jeff

Thanks, that helped clarify it. I do think it’s important for us to be in that 4/5 game and if PSU beats OSU they have a good chance of bumping us, like you said. Also like Kenny said, we’d want PSU to then beat Minny and definitely MSU to beat Iowa.

KRN

You definately want VT to win because BC has an almost guaranteed win against Wake Forest to close the season and VT is a more solid tourney team at the moment. You don’t want BC to accumulate wins to finish the season. The bigger question is, do you root for VT or Clemson when they play?

Jeff

Yeah, I was basically trying to decide if I wanted to get greedy or not. VT is definitely in better shape now, so I was wondering if we were rooting for BC and for both of them to miss the tournament. Losing would probably put BC in significant jeopardy so that’s what I’ll probably root for.

KRN

Also, I’d say at this point in the season, we want the top teams to whomp on all bubble teams even if those bubble teams are ones that we have already beat. At this point, upsets over top ranked teams help the bubble team more then it helps us through RPI increases. I say this because the committee will probably tend to look at that particular upset more favorably than the slightly better RPI increase we get from the win over that particular bubble team. Therefore, I would say you would want teams like Penn State and Clemson to lose to teams like Ohio State and Duke from here on out.

Kenny

I don’t think that other conference matters that much. As strong as Big Ten is this year, it would be crazy if the committee not select at least 5 BT teams to the tourney. If we take care of our business, we’d be the 4th or 5th team of Big Ten to get in. MSU and PSU do not have better resume than us, and if all three has tied conference record, it would be insane not to pick the team who swept the other two. If other bubble teams tumbles, good chances that BT get 7 teams in this year.

Jeff

From past history, I don’t think the committee even considers how many teams a conference gets. Consider that the Big East is likely to get 11 teams this year and last year the Pac-10 only got 2. The Big Ten is certainly better than the SEC this year, but the SEC may very well get more bids than us, just because their fifth best team may be more deserving than our fifth best team.

JimC

Wow IL is all over PU at Mackey….but it’s early.

Dylan Burkhardt

Hearing that Beilein is in Akron tonight watching Larry Nance Jr. tonight. We’ll have more in our recruiting roundup posted tonight or tomorrow.

Brian W

Sorry. Started writing the Nance Jr. post below before I saw this.

grandchamp

I wonder what Beilein thought about Bhullar Monday night.

Brian W

Decent game between Illinois and Purdue. After a hot start, Illinois is colder than Soldier Field now.

I just don’t think MSU is that great of a team. The blame game: players v. coaches. Izzo Always has a good team with good athletes, tons of five star players over the years. It’s not the talent it ain’t the coach. Sometimes a five star player can become mediocre when he has 1 -star attitude, work ethic and diligence. When your team is made up of players like this, everyone is a star, they get lazy, and they start blaming one another, thinking you deserve to have a great season just for being part of a historically good program without having to play for it. Some of States players are just straight up fat and slow.

JimC

Pretty much agree….and feel confident about the game Saturday.
But it’s one thing for the fans to be (over) confident, and another thing for the team…our boys better be ready & focused!

Mattski

My theory is that it has a lot to do with screaming–that is, with the coach’s demeanor. A lot of coaches start out as screamers and motivate their kids that way. But sooner or later they must mellow or die (or suffer bad health). There’s a tough transition there for many coaches. Izzo was known as a screamer in the beginning.

This is also a problem for coaches transitioning to the NBA, where the players make bazillions more than the coach and don’t stand for a lot of contemptuous nonsense. . . at least not long (see Latrell Sprewell, who I am not justifying, of course).

This is why I’ll take a thoughtful, quiet, even guy like Beilein–or John Wooden. When they do get made a kid knows it, is shamed, wants to do better because of the more bona fide moral tone they set.

Lot of nuances to this, of course. But I’m pretty convinced. . .

JimC

Yeah for sure! I wonder if Izzo’s schtick is getting old. To me, he just seems a little worn out. Of course, if they come roaring back next year (or somehow win on Saturday) then i will shut up.

http://www.offtackleempire.com GregGoBlue

Bama is getting shellacked by UF. This is good for us.

AG2

RIP Bama and Baylor.

Or should I say, NIT

AG2

Sigh, it is absolutely ridiculous how hot and cold Boston College is depending entirely on how Reggie Jackson wants to play. Tonight he’s white hot but most of the time he’s a cancer on his team and in Coach Donohue’s doghouse.

I still remember the game at Crisler last season I’m pretty sure he was barking at the crowd.

J.D.

Could tonight be going any better for Michigan as far as the rest of the bubble teams play Loss for Illini, Baylor an Bama. But Nebraska is playing Mizzou tough and BC is handing it to V-Tech.

AG2

J.D., Boston College is going to all but clinch a bid with that win, especially since they have a home game vs. Wake Forest left. However, I don’t see VT falling out with a loss.

Maybe if its a really really big loss, which it could be if Reggie Jackson continues to go ‘ham.

Giddings

Those Big 12 bubble teams are annoying (Baylor, Nebraska, and Colorado)… ideally we want all three to fall short, but Nebraska and Colorado play each other this weekend – the winner of that one is probably in pretty good shape. If Baylor can beat Texas they’d be right back in it too.

Assuming Nebraska closes out Mizzou tonight, we’ll have to hope that Iowa State beats Colorado tomorrow, Texas beats Baylor, and Colorado beats Nebraska. Early losses in the BIg 12 tourney for those teams would be nice too.

MSU beats Iowa tomorrow to make them 9-8.
Illinois beats Indiana on Saturday to make them 9-9
UM beats MSU on Saturday to make UM 9-9 and MSU 9-9
PSU beats Minnesota to make them 9-9

With 4 teams at 9-9, how do they determine the order #4-#7?

UM is 4-1 against that group (2 wins v. MSU, 2 wins v. PSU and 1 loss v. ILL)
ILL is 3-2 against that group (1 win v. UM, 1-1 against PSU & MSU)
MSU is 2-4 against that group (2 losses v. UM, 1-1 against ILL & PSU)
PSU is 2-4 against that group (2 losses v. UM, 1-1 against ILL & MSU)

Would UM actually end up being the #4 seed? Has UM ever had a bye in the Big Ten Tourney?

grandchamp

That is how they determine the tiebreaker.

Giddings

Yes and yes. I think our most recent bye was 2004(?) when we beat Iowa in the 4/5 game (and lost to Illinois in the semis)

AG2

Yep, that was the year we were ineligible to make the tournament and the Big Ten only got 3 teams. It was also the last time we had a winning record in Big Ten play. Seems like so long ago.

Dylan Burkhardt

Pretty sure we were ineligible to make the tournament the year before. 03-04, when we were the 5 seed, was when we won the NIT.

jmblue

I think that was the last one. We also had a bye in 1998 (#4) and 2003 (#3).

jmblue

Minnesota at Northwestern tomorrow – do we definitely want the Gophers to win, to make our win over them better? Or is it better for NW to remove all doubt about Minn’s bubble status?

Giddings

I’ve been going back and forth on that one. If Minnesota wins their last two games, it might get them back in the Top 50, which would make our win look better but it would also put them back in bubble contention with us (even at 8-10… they had some huge non-conference wins). In addition, a Northwestern loss would probably drop them out of the Top 100, which would not only strip us of a Top 100 win but also give us a second “Bad Loss” for people to talk about. This is NW’s last game so the only way they could get back into the Top 100 is with a win or two in the BTT.

Based on all of this, I think we want NW to win. I’d also like to see PSU win at Minnesota this weekend, which might just get them in the Top 50 (2 “free” quality wins for us). Minnesota is in no danger of dropping below the next “threshold” of RPI (Top 100) even if they lose out.

jmblue

Good point about the rankings. We definitely don’t want another bad loss. I’ll pull for the ‘Cats.

Jeff

Overall it was a good night for us with Bama and Baylor losing. The biggest thing was PSU losing, which means a win over MSU puts us in the 4/5 game.

Mike

Sam Webb on TKA just said that Michigan was still very much in play for Gary Harris, that Purdue and Louisville were also in stong contention but MSU was falling off(my speculation is due to Summers fallout/team disintegration.) He also says that Michigan’s resurgence has not gone unnoticed by 11 or 12 giant Sim Bhullar.